Many of us remember the night the Comets made their debut with an intrasquad scrimmage at Rice.

We went in wondering just what this new team in this new league — the WNBA — would be about. They had next, but would anybody care?

We came out of Autry Court that night thinking, “this could be fun.” (And thinking that little spark plug named Kim Perrot might be special.)

We were right. The four-time WNBA champion Comets rank at the top of this city’s most fun franchises to watch.

If you didn’t attend a game in the early years — and foolishly many of you didn’t — you missed a treat.

Forget the Boston Celtics’ so-called Big Three. We’d take Coop, Swoopes and Tina T any day. We ran fast breaks with Arcain, battled for rebounds with Tzekova and dove for loose balls with Lil’ Kim.

We cheered wildly when it was apparent that our women were among the league’s best. We celebrated championships as if they were the birthright of the newborn franchise.

We laughed at all of Van Chancellor’s jokes and at his voice as he delivered them.

We cried when the cancer that attacked Perrot’s body, but couldn’t touch her spirit, took her away from us too soon.

We were stunned to silence when Teresa Weatherspoon’s half-court prayer was answered, forcing a decisive Game 3 against those nasty New Yorkers. But the cheers returned loudly the next day and we partied like it was 1999 when the Comets won No. 3 for No. 10.

Houston proud

The run to the fourth championship was sweet as the Comets, despite a 27-5 record, finished out of first place for the first time. But they swept through the postseason unbeaten, and another downtown celebration was in order.

Like heat and humidity, a Comets championship came around every summer.

And then they stopped. Now they are gone.

The angst about the franchise’s impending demise and the hurt that indeed happened is not to the level of what the city felt when the Oilers were snatched out from under us, but the Comets’ loyal following is hurting this week.

The Comets meant something to a lot of Houstonians.

“The Comets were a source of deep pride for all Houstonians,” said Rockets owner Les Alexander, who owned the Comets during the glory days. “I will never forget our team making history by winning that first WNBA championship, then following it up with three more consecutive titles. The team was a great source of inspiration and had a great impact on thousands of young women everywhere.”

In the first few years, Comets fans rocked the Compaq Center. Even when attendance fell off, their games were fun events. Alexander described the Comets’ fans as the “most loyal and energetic fans in the league.”

The Comets’ average attendance their first season (1997) was 10,227. That jumped to nearly 13,000 the second season and held around 12,500 for the next two title runs. And it was a different crowd than what you see at other major sports events.

A diverse crowd. A fun crowd. A crowd with hundreds of children sitting close enough to see the players’ sweat. In those seats where the fat cats sit at Toyota Center and Reliant Stadium.

When the titles stopped coming, some fans did the same, but the team still drew nearly 11,000 a game in 2002. By this past summer, though, the Comets were down to 13th in the 14-team league in attendance, drawing just 6,585 per game at Reliant Arena, roughly half what they did 10 years ago.

When the Comets moved to Toyota Center along with the Rockets, it just wasn’t the same as it was at the Compaq Center. The team wasn’t winning enough to keep fan interest high. Empty seats don’t spend money.

It was obvious that the Comets were in trouble.

One wonders what is in store for the rest of the league if a franchise with the Comets’ history — in a huge market that has displayed as much interest in women’s basketball as Houston did that long ago — can’t survive.

What about the league?

The Comets’ sad end would seem to indicate that the WNBA is in trouble, particularly in today’s economic environment.

Not so, says league president Donna Orender, who said the Comets’ issues were specific to the Comets.

“I think that everyone here understands that there’s a history here that predates this economic crisis that created extremely tough challenges for the future success of the Comets and unfortunately we weren’t able to overcome them,” Orender told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

That is sad.

It is sad that after such a glorious beginning you can now go on eBay and buy memorabilia for a defunct franchise known as the Houston Comets.

It is sad that girls in Houston won’t have a local professional team in the only legitimate women’s league in America to look up to.